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Your agent architecture is a bigger cost driver than your model
◆ 90RelevanceOn a story from The New Stack1mo ago
A 70x variance in token usage means your middle-layer 'harness' can destroy your unit economics regardless of which model you choose. You must audit how your agent manages context and tool-calling loops to prevent massive, unnecessary margin erosion.
Takeaways
- Agent wrappers can inflate token costs by 70x using the same model.
- Benchmarking your harness is as critical as benchmarking the underlying LLM.
- Token variance stems from how frameworks handle context and tool-calling loops.
Read the original at thenewstack.io
Aider, Claude Code, and OpenClaw ran an identical model. Token use varied 70-fold.
fmode.me/n/aider-claude-code-and-openclaw-ran-an-identical-model-token-use-varied-70-fold
Written by Founder Mode using gemini-3-flash-preview, from the publisher's own summary. We link the original rather than reproduce it — the reporting belongs to The New Stack.
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